The Sacramento Kings have been at the bottom of the Western Conference for quite some time now but they have made some enhancements to their roster for this season and hope to compete for a playoff spot. One of the big improvements was signing Rajon Rondo who they hope will return to All-Star form in Sacramento. With Rondo in town now it would seem as though Darren Collison would be relegated to backup point guard minutes but the two point guards may see a lot of time on the floor together, according to Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee.
This news comes from vice president and general manager Vlade Divac who also said in the same breath that he won't tell George Karl how to coach so this is clearly not set in stone. Divac would like to see them play together because they are two of the teams best players and in order for the team to be successful those two are going to have to have very good years.
Rondo is likely to be the starting point guard with Collison coming off the bench. The Kings are pretty deep at the wing positions but have very little depth in the frontcourt so the way to get them on the floor together might be by going small. If the Kings put Rudy Gay at power forward for stretches it would make more sense for Collison and Rondo to play the guard spots.
The Kings are hoping Rondo could regain his old All-Star form after a failed tenure with the Dallas Mavericks last season. Rondo is notorious for being difficult to coach but when he is playing he can be one of the best point guards in the NBA so Divac is hoping he can be the facilitator for their offense.
Collison had a very good season with the Kings last year but suffered an injury in the second half and was never able to play for Karl who took over midseason. The Kings have had point guard trouble for a while and Collison seemed like he was finally the answer there but now he isn't even the starter. Collison averaged about 35 minutes per game a year ago and while that will likely go down a little bit he will still probably be the sixth man and get plenty of playing time. In 45 games last season, all starts, Collison averaged 16.1 points and 5.6 rebounds per game while shooting 47 percent from the field and 37 percent from three.
Collison's play last season definitely didn't scream for the Kings to upgrade at the point guard position but they were able to get Rondo on a bargain deal (1 year $10 million) so that would have been hard to pass up. Rondo and Collison should be able to play together just fine and although he may not be starting Collison's role with the team will still likely be a big one.
